Media Council: Movie about a Hungarian sailor’s voyage around the globe to be shot with financing under the Patronage Programme

Published: 5 July 2018

The film planned to document the launch of the nine-month voyage of István Kopár, one of the contestants of the Golden Globe Race, a solo sailing competition circumnavigating the globe, won the ad hoc grant of the Hungarian Media Patronage Programme this week. At this week’s meeting, the NMHH Media Council of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH), imposed media supervisory fines on a television channel for lack of rating and on three radio operators for deviation from their broadcasting schedules.

Filming and film festival grants

This week’s decision by the Media Council allocates HUF 1.29 million from the Escher Károly Tender of the Patronage Programme, supporting the on-site filming of unexpected events of Hungarian relevance, to film the launch of István Kopár at the Golden Globe Race, a solo sailing boat competition circumnavigating the globe. It was just before the start of the race that the 64-year-old Hungarian sailor was confirmed to be able to set sail on his boat named “Puffin” on the 50th anniversary of this now revived historic competition that first took place in 1968. Using this filming material, Richárd Nagy will be directing a documentary about this challenging competition; in case of an ad hoc tender, the creators must undertake to submit a valid application with the filming raw material receiving the grant to the patronage tender for documentaries or popular science films.

The board meeting offered HUF 500,000 for the award winners of the 25th National Student Film Festival scheduled to be held at Budapest’s Aranytíz Kultúrház on 21–26 August 2018.

Sanctions for missing rating and deviations from the programme

The Media Council imposed a HUF 30,000 fine on the operator of Budapest’s Centrum TV for failure to publish the rating information “Not recommended for audiences under the age of twelve” before airing the drug prevention programme Függőségek (Addictions) three times (including reruns) in mid-April. The Authority monitors compliance with the provisions of the media act on age classification designed to protect minors on a quarterly basis.

The Council imposed a fine in a total of HUF 120,000 on the operator of Európa Rádió, a radio station operating in the area of Sátoraljaújhely, Kisújszállás, Miskolc and Nyíregyháza, for broadcasting fewer local programmes during the week of April under investigation than its contractual obligation, and for exceeding the maximum daily and weekly ratio of reruns in its commitments. The council ordered another community radio station, Rádió Szentendre to pay a fine of HUF 20,000 for failing to meet its commitments for both local and public service broadcasts during the week of April under investigation. During a programme week of April, Rádió Sun, a community radio of Gyomaendrőd, broadcast fewer texts as well as local community, public service and news programmes than its commitment, and, contrary to its contractual obligations, failed to broadcast any ethnic or minority programme on any day and did not meet the minimum legal requirement on Hungarian music; therefore, the Council imposed a HUF 10,000 fine on the operator of the radio station. When imposing a fine, the Media Council always determines the form and extent of the penalties with due consideration to all the circumstances of the specific case and employing the principle of progressiveness and proportionality.